Wedding Expo aims at ‘ideal marketplace’ for related small businesses

[www.stabroeknews.com] – With several hundred visitors expected to pass through the March 28-30 Wedding Expo at the Roraima Duke Lodge, the company’s Marketing Manager Shamaine Davis believes the event can serve as an invaluable “poster board” for a host of businesses involved in the country’s wedding and entertainment sectors.

“Actually, when you come to think of it, the event is …unique. In previous years we have had large numbers of people attend the event, looking for services that have to do with weddings and other types of occasions. If you take account of the fact that there is only one Wedding Expo in Guyanathen you understand its importance as a place for checking out services and making deals,” Davis added.

Shamaine Davis

Currently in its sixth year the Expo seeks to bring together companies offering services in sectors that span the broad range of amenities associated with weddings, similar ceremonies and celebratory events. “Actually, the Wedding Expo is one of those events that people usually attend with a purpose. They may meet a seamstress or a designer or an event planner, someone who can put an entire wedding together. It’s that sort of event,” Davis said.

She pointed out that the vast majority of couples planning marriage and attending the Expo usually find some service they can use. “Apart from the browsing and looking around that happens at the Wedding Expo a lot of business is actually done between visitors to the event and exhibitors,” she said.

According to Davis, the event is particularly popular with some of the larger service providers in areas that include party services and household furnishings. “Those are our regulars who come to the Wedding Expo to show off their services. Those are the people who are ready to do business. Businesses involved in bridal dresses and beauty preparation, transportation, printing, and photography are also likely to do pretty well at Wedding Expo,” Davis said.

The Roraima Airways functionary told Stabroek Business that this year the event was hoping to attract large numbers of small businesses that might derive “real benefit” from being at the event. “One of the good things about the Wedding Expo is that it is also tailor-made for small businesses. In beauty and makeup… for example, those businesses that show up range from experienced professionals to younger people now seeking to make their careers. One of the things that we do is to look at the smaller startup-type businesses that come to Wedding Expo seeking to sell their services with a view to ensuring as far as possible that we can accommodate them. Once we can provide them with the exposure that allows them to meet with potential customers then it is left up to them to sell themselves,” Davis said.

Couples at Arrow Point in the Wedding Expo ‘Race to the Altar’

“In a sense the Wedding Expo is a sort of stage for businesses in the sector. It provides all sorts of opportunities that often go beyond just engaging a single client for a single wedding. There are definitely long-term opportunities that can make careers and develop businesses.

“Every year we seek to add a new and relevant feature to the event and this year we have invited marriage counsellors and professionals in related disciplines to be part of the event. I doubt that there is any other marketing medium that affords marriage counsellors the kind of exposure that the Wedding Expo does.” Davis said.